Celtic Media Center buys 6.5 acres from Costco for $2.5 million

A group representing Celtic Media Center has closed on a $2.5 million deal to purchase about 6.5 acres of the 28 acres Costco bought in Baton Rouge last week for $12.15 million. Patrick Mulhearn, director of studio operations, says Celtic already has much of the roughly 16,000 square feet of office space leased at the site of the former Coca-Cola bottling plant on Airline Highway adjacent to Celtic’s studio and headquarters. Celtic had already been leasing the space from Coca-Cola, and in turn leasing it to others. “Now that we own it, there’s no middle man,” Mulhearn says. The space was used in recent years for the filming of Battleship and Battle: Los Angeles, Mulhearn says. It will also begin to be leased this month for shooting on the next major movie being made in Baton Rouge, which is largely rumored—but unconfirmed—to be Jurassic Park 4. “They have already leased a big portion of it through May,” he says. “Long-term, it’s possible that we will end up building a little something more on the site for milling or construction of sets.” —Steve Sanoski